Royal Blue

Connections and Destruction (Chapter Twenty Three)

Papyrus rushed through the halls, silver and navy metal, shining metal, glinting like a knife's sharp edge; blurring by.

"PAPYRUS WAIT!!" Undyne's voice echoed somewhere behind him. But he couldn't stop.

There was no time.
Papyrus skidded around the corner, before everything in him tensed.

No... no.

Papyrus's eyes blurred.

The air was filled with a smokey, ashen mist, making everything fuzzy. The air was filled with tiny particles, the ground rusted and cracked, but ultimately... mostly stable.

And among it, there was silver.
And among it, there was blue.

"S-Sans...?" Papyrus scrubbed at his sockets, every movement felt heavy, he barely took a step forward before his quaking knees caved, sending him clattering to the floor.

Undyne skidded in a moment after the tall skeleton had. Her chase leaving her breathless.

How the hell Papyrus knew the core well enough to navigate it this quickly; that was a question for another time.

Now, she had to deal with what was in front of her.

Papyrus.
He was quiet. Worryingly quiet.

But what terrified her even more than that...
He was still.

In front of him, silver metal glinted. It took Undyne a moment to recognize it.

Armor.
Zero's armor.

"Papyrus," Undyne panted, swallowing the hot air, "What-?"

That's when she noticed, Papyrus wasn't just crouching next to that.

In his hands, clutched tight, as if the fabric were all he had left; was the familiar dusty blue of Sans' hoodie.

"...Papyrus," Undyne said softly, kneeling down next to him.
Papyrus's body shivered with frail sobs. His hands shook.
"Oh Papyrus..." Undyne whispered, pulling him close.

There was silence for a moment.

"I s-sensed him," Papyrus whispered. Words still choked on waves of emotion. "I sensed his magic; Undyne."

"H-He was crying out," Papyrus said, quivering. "H-He was... in pain."

Papyrus gripped the fabric tightly.
"And now I can't sense him at all."

Undyne pulled the skeleton tighter.

"I'm so sorry."

Undyne couldn't tell how long they sat there. In mourning.

There was an emptiness in the stale, smokey air. A lacking neither Undyne nor Papyrus could shake.
Questions lingered in her mind; doubt snaking through the cracks in her fear.

Undyne softly let go, her arms falling away.

Zero's armor glinted from it's place on the floor.

"...Why?" Papyrus's small voice barely spoke. His arms curled tightly to his chest; hot tears streaming down his cheeks.

Undyne turned back toward him.

There was a shift in the dim atmosphere, as Papyrus's eyes sparking, dimly beginning to glow; his magic building with it.

The air around them crackled like thunder; the feeling making Undyne's scales stand on edge.
Papyrus's magic took a hold of it all. Gripping everything around.

Zero's armor was surrounded with an angry orange haze.

"Why was he here?" Papyrus said, his hands gripped the fabric tight, but his eyes held a raging wildfire. Desperation, grief.

There was a look in his tear-filled eyes; like desperation.
Like instinct.

Like being brave enough to still have hope, only to have it all torn away.
Only to have everything fall away before his very eyes.

"I don't know." Undyne whispered.

A part of her whispered to run. Instinct perhaps. The air swelled with dangerous magic; willful and furious.
Magic built from grief.

It was the most powerful, most malicious magic out there.

Undyne moved back toward Papyrus, kneeling next to him again.

It was also a kind of magic that was indescribably self-destructive; and if there was one thing she could do for Sans, it was to make sure his brother didn't destroy himself with grief.

And if that was the only thing she could do; then damn it she would.

For Sans.
For Papyrus.

 "Sans shouldn't've been here," Undyne said, lifting a hand to the tall skeleton's shoulder, which still shuttered with sobs. "But-"

"WHY..." Papyrus's body pulled away from her reassurance, hands gripping the fabric even tighter.

His magic flickered, and like a match dropped in a gas tank; it exploded.

"Why didn't Zero PROTECT HIM?!" Papyrus screamed. Attacks summoning around him, his fury, his pain, growing with his aura.

Undyne could feel her skin singe with the heat of Papyrus's fury; the emotional blowback nearly knocking her to the ground.

But Undyne reached out to him anyway, unwilling to be shoved away.

Instead, pulling him into a tight embrace.

Forcing herself to be there for him; even as it hurt.

Papyrus hyperventilated, and Undyne looked up at him.

Sharp bone attacks hurled towards her, only to halt only inches from her un-armored body.

Papyrus shook, his eyes fiery and shadowed.

What was left of his brother clutched between his shaking fists.

Papyrus looked down at Undyne, as she pulled him tighter in her embrace. All Undyne could do was breathe.

Papyrus... he was like a scared child.
Sniffling, sobbing.

Lashing out because he had nothing else he could do.

Undyne herself had felt that, had been there; and maybe this was poetic justice.

She'd spent her whole life lashing out, and now... here she was.

She wondered what Gerson would say to that. He had never been a believer in poetic endings.

He used to say that 'nothing ever ends poetically.'

It ends; then, we turn it into poetry.

Undyne would have to agree there.

All that blood was never once beautiful. It was always just red.